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bloodshot wrote:As entrenched and a student of the Sopranos I am, how I can always stumble upon something for the 1st time. I can see Richie getting out of Ade's car the first time walking towards Beansie's (actully theres a slip up here since the resturant is actually behind him when he's suppose to be looking at it) and he's wearing a Members Only Jacket. Just something i never thought about before. And i belive he wears it several times later. And you have to wonder if Richie's attire and Tony's "jaaaacket" doesn't somehow play into how it all ends.

That is a great catch!!

Looking back at Richie's resentment at the usurping younger Tony being the boss when he left prison, it is conceivable that the anonymous man in the Member's Only jacket in Holsten's also personified or symbolised all of Tony's enemies who each had a motive to eliminate Tony.

I think the characters who get released from prison on the series are the writers' way of exploring the evolution of the mafia and the mafia myth. There's a recurring theme that the characters who get released from prison are too warped to even fit into the Mafia anymore. They're stuck in a time warp from whenever they went away and their minds are warped by life in prison. Richie Aprile, Tony Blundetto, Feech LaManna, Phil Leotardo. All of them act like feral animals compared to other made guys. Their M.O. is more violent and more brazen than Tony's or Silvio's or Johnny Sac's.

Remember in Goodfellas and the book it was based on that going to jail or prison was just a normal part of being a wise guy? The sentences were lighter back then and crimes like hi-jacking weren't legally defined so guys like Jimmy Burke would get pinched for "possession of stolen goods". Sometimes they'd get off with a $250 fine. And when they finally did have to do real time in big prisons it was a cake walk. The Johnny Boy Soprano belonged to the same generation as the fictional characters in Goodfellas and real-life John Gotti (roughly speaking). By the time we get to The Sopranos in the late 90's everything is different. Made guys do everything they can to stay out of prison and under the government's radar. They've achieved a comfortable middle class living with nice houses, a wife and family, a cumare, a boat, etc. Thay've got no interest in giving any of that up.